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Which Animal Was the Inspiration for Gareth Edwards' 'Godzilla'?

Warner Bros. Pictures via Everett Collection
One of the most iconic movie monsters of all time, Godzilla is storming his way back onto the big screen, and it takes a surprising amount of work to craft a creature that can level a city in minutes. Luckily, the latest take on Godzilla has a secret weapon: director Gareth Edwards, who has spent much of his career working in the visual effects world. His experience was not only vital to creating a monster for the ages, but also to helping the film's stars act opposite it when they have no idea what they're looking at. Edwards, producer Thomas Tull and stars Ken Watanabe and Elisabeth Olsen sat down to talk about the "obvious" inspiration for Godzilla, the challenges of acting with only your imagination, and Olsen's unexpected reaction to seeing the finished film.
Director Gareth Edwards and producer revealed the initial inspiration behind the monster himself, and talked a little bit about the process of creating Godzilla:
Edwards: "In terms of his movement, we initially had got hold of – we had a researcher get hundreds of different clips of animals fighting and animal behavior because I felt that the obvious thing to do is like, “Okay we’re just gonna use nature as a reference, we’re gonna do this realistically, let’s look at animals, let’s just copy that, that’s all we have to do.” So we got bears fighting and wolves hunting and animated him based on that and then sort of sat and watched it and were like 'Oh, there’s a problem here,' which is if you watch nature, a natural history documentary or a wildlife documentary and you don’t have any narration, you don’t know what the hell is going on...And so we ended up dialing in a lot more human performance to him and he slightly went incrementally from being purely animalistic to a lot more like a guy in a suit doing a performance because you needed to understand, in his body language, whether he was tired or angry."
The actors themselves never got to see Godzilla until the film was completed, so they had to base their performance based on the mockup animations that Edwards showed them before filming began. Ken Watanabe and Elisabeth Olsen discussed what they had to work with:
Watanabe: “[It's] just imagination and a point. Gareth had an iPad with the animation, something like that, a point.”
Olsen: “Gareth, before we shot anything that had special effects, he showed me previs, which I learned about, and it’s just these basic funny cartoons making terrible reactions to things. But you understand what they’re looking at and what the angles are, and that what was so exciting to me about doing a project like this is that imagination aspect.”
However, having to rely solely on your imagination can be difficult for an actor, especially one who has never worked with CGI before, like Olsen. She went into what she found challenging about the process, and what she hopes to take with her to The Avengers:
Olsen: “It’s difficult, because you think it’s just going to be full make-believe, and then it’s pouring rain and you have to walk seven steps that way and three steps that way and you have to get a verbal cue when you know that the camera guy has panned down from whatever is going to be there back to you, so you can turn. It’s very technical and so it’s was definitely something I’ve never really done before, but you still have to hit your marks and all that stuff. It surprisingly looks easy to me. I think that’s what I was surprised by when I saw it. I think now that I’ve done it once I have confidence knowing that I understand how it’s gonna be edited, because it’s a little scary when you’re a fish in new waters.”
In order to create an environment that Godzilla could interact with, Edwards and his team used CGI for various elements on the film, which were added to the physical set in order to create the final product. According to producer Thomas Tull, Edwards did such a good job with both aspects that the audience shouldn’t be able to tell what was built by hand and what was added in post-production:
Tull: “Gareth is, in a way, an old fashioned filmmaker. We share the passion for Amblin’s movies back in the ‘80s, things like that. So there were some things that he wanted to do practical, that I think were great. Hopefully you couldn’t tell the difference, and tell me which — other than Godzilla, probably — we didn’t do practical. It’s really looking at each set piece or each item and deciding what you can get away with and not have people bump on.”
Finally, Olsen spoke about her experience seeing everything come together in the finished film for the first time. Since Godzilla is her first effect-heavy film, she wasn’t sure what to expect from the film, and her reaction took her by surprise:
Olsen: “I was actually shocked that I wanted to cry like twice in the film, and usually I’m quite removed from the films I watch and really get critical if I’m in them, and I was amazed at how moved I was so quickly, especially with Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche. I think that shocked me. It’s just always fun, because I never really worked with anyone but Carson [Bolde], who played my son, and Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] very briefly and this other actress Jill [Teed], who played one of the nurses, so it’s just nice to see what everyone else is doing. There was part of me that was like “Maybe I should have gone to see what everyone else was doing,” because part of me was like “Oh, it’s so crazy. They’re getting such crazy stuff!” but it’s good I didn’t because I’m also not seeing everything they’re seeing. I’m seeing it from a different perspective so it was just eye-opening to see what everyone else did, and I just really liked it. I saw it with one of my best friends, and we were so excited afterwards. We were like, “Good one!”
Godzilla is now playing in theaters.
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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It's 2020, and we're already knee deep in kaiju chaos. Pacific Rim picks up en media res, with the interdimensional monsters' initial invasion of Earth having taken place a decade and change back and a super-powered international military of robot warship (a.k.a. Jaeger) pilots newly deemed unfit to protect the Earth from increasing threats. Beyond a quick, straightforward piece of introductory exposition, we don't spend too much time learning about the history of the species' reign on Earth — they came, we ran, we fought, they kept coming, people kind of got into it, and now we're prepping for the biggest attack yet. That's all we know.
And that's all we need to know. In what should tout itself as the biggest, flashiest movie of the summer, the "less is more" philosophy seems to have been stamped at the top of each page of the screenplay. Guillermo del Toro, a master of imagination, lets his world speak for itself — in the two hours we spend inside the filmmaker's mind, we widen our eyes over and over at engrossing fantasy lands: the futuristic home base for the Jaeger militia, the seedy underworld of kaiju organ dealers, the nightmare flashbacks of each tragedy-afflicted soldier (called upon to fuse his thoughts with his robot and co-pilot in order to fight the nefarious beasts). All stellar, engaging, and even at their darkest, wholly fun. To reiterate, the sensory charms of this movie do all of its talking, allowing our excess admiration to fill in the gaps left by... you know, plot and character.
This movie runs on the basics and makes no claims to do anything otherwise. Its plot is so simple, you can sum it up as "robots vs. monsters." Its characters are thin enough as to fit the stock catalogue almost perfectly: Charlie Hunnam plays a PTSD-stricken returning fighter, Rinko Kikuchi an aspiring soldier who wishes to avenge her family, Idris Elba (offering the best dramatic performance in the movie) the no-nonsense commanding officer with a secret soft spot, and Robert Kazinsky the hot-shot who doesn't take too kindly to Raleigh's (Hunnam) return to action. But he has a dog, so we know we're supposed to like him eventually. And a good husk of the dialogue will have you checking your phone to make sure it is not, in fact, 1996. But in embracing this identity, in cherishing these age-old tropes and traditions rather than aiming to pass them off as something altogether new, Pacific Rim wins us over. You won't groan at hokey lines or predictable character turns, you'll howl with celebratory laughter.
Humor and fun are in no short supply in Pacific Rim, better recalling Hellboy than any of the director's more severe turns. Immersive underworlds, exhilarating scenescapes, and look-how-cool-this-is battles never lose their juice. And to top the lot is the comic relief: the misfits. Charlie Day leads the pack as a character who is no far cry from his It's Always Sunny incarnation — an excitable, emotional scientist who considers his quest to understand the kaiju brain as the key to sending the wretched beasts back from whence they came.
Day's screen-time accomplices are Burn Gorman, a didactic mathematician who counters his partner's outlandish theories at every opportunity, and del Toro regular Ron Perlman as a black market top banana who gets roped into Newton's (Day... yes, his name is Newton, as it should be) harebrained scheme to obtain a living kaiju brain. Matching any one of the huge scale battle scenes in thrill factor, Day's high-stakes bickering with Gorman or his fish-out-of-water immigration into Hannibal Chau's (Perlman... yes, his name is Hannibal Chau, and the joke behind it is surreally hilarious) criminal kingdom offer a handful of Pacific Rim's high points. The shrimpy scientist has a larger role than you might anticipate, but he never overstays his welcome — this movie, with keen awareness, belongs to the soldiers, their robots, and the monsters they are dying to kill.
But the film falls short in a few of its later turns, when the self-aware goof troop is abadonend and the film falters into some decidedly unimaginative character storylines. It might sound a little backward to expect anything otherwise from a movie so deliberately delivered on the modus operandi of monster movie yore, but sweeping conclusions seem to lose sense of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the practice and succumb to a closed-eyed grab for the obvious. With as much fun as Guillermo del Toro has with his movie, and as much excitement as he stocks into every nook and cranny, you'd think he could stuff his ending up with a bit more of that fun, that excitement, and the imagination that bursts from every seam.
Even if your mind drifts here and there, called upon to reflect on old Godzilla features, Power Rangers adventures, or Always Sunny gags that you can't help but remember, you're always in the movie — it's as much of a ride as it is a story. The sights and sounds are just as important as the plot itself. So from beginning to end, you won't find yourself wanting — you'll be astonished by the big, amused by the small, and find every sense in your body nourished to completion. pacific Rim might not dazzle you too far beyond your expectations, but it'll meet them for sure. The kaiju? They're monstrous. The Jaegers? Supercharged. Del Toro's world? Breathtaking. His stars? Up to the task — some (notably Elba and Day) firing on all cylinders. Sure, you can poke fun at the dialogue, root up a plothole or two, but the film doesn't let you focus on its flaws, no matter how many there may be. It's too busy jazzing up your energy with what monster movies were built on in the first place: unadulterated fun.
3.5/5
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter | Follow hollywood.com on Twitter @hollywood_com
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VHS tapes currently taking up massive amounts of space in Warren Ellis' home: The Sweet Smell of Success, 12 Angry Men, The Singing Detective, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife &amp; Her Lover, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Andy Warhol's Heat, Tetsuo the Iron Man, and three volumes of Max Headroom. Important to note: Warren Ellis does not currently own a VHS player.
Turns out, the acclaimed comic book writer's pack rat lifestyle isn't too far off from the sensibilities of his latest creation, NYPD Detective John Tallow. The lead of Ellis' new novel Gun Machine, which hit the New York Times bestseller list after only five days, Tallow is a hardboiled cop battered down the city of New York. He also loves to read. "There were several bits where I was thinking, 'in several years, this could be me,'" Ellis says. "Snowed under with the last magazines subscriptions left on the planet, the iPad, the slightly broken Kindle, and … a stack of videotapes."
Gun Machine picks up with Tallow at the brink of a career-shaping discovery. After reporting to the scene of a violent disturbance in an old Pearl St. building, Tallow uncovers an apartment covered wall to wall in guns. A little CSI digging later reveals that each firearm is connected to a cold case murders dating back decades. Saddled with the responsibility to crack the complex web of deaths, Tallow embarks on a journey through New York that puts him on the track of a shadowy assassin ingrained in the city's history.
For Ellis, whose comic work includes Red, Global Frequency, and a number of superhero titles, Gun Machine was never a story he considered telling in graphic novel form. "There are only so many comic pages you can write of a guy sitting on his own, thinking," Ellis says. The writer describes the differences between comic and prose writing as "radical" and not obvious to the outsider's eye. In his comics, Ellis says he only has an average of 28 words per panel and a responsibility to describe everything in the frame. Novel writing is the Wild West. "Part of the joy of writing and reading novels is that you get to generate the picture in your own head. Everyone sees that differently, so you have to work the visuals in broad strokes most of the time. You're trying to evoke a scene less than you're trying to describe it in crystalline specificity."
Compared to the restrictive art of comic writing, Ellis' language in Gun Machine explodes with color, the author taking full advantage of the form while never laying it on too thick. "What you might be seeing is my intention to write better prose," Ellis says. He admits that his first attempt at a book, Crooked Little Vein, was "fairly simple and straightforward." He looks back at it as a crude first outing, acting largely as proof that he could actually write a book. "The question there was if I could get to the end of one and not embarrass myself. Victory was finishing the damn thing."
The genesis of Gun Machine dates back to when Ellis was discussing a film adaptation of his graphic novel Gravel with Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull (a project to be directed by VFK wizard Tim Miller that's still in development at the production company). Tull insisted that the mystical crime story had to stay put in its British setting because the country has "deep history of the weird and mystic, and America doesn't have that." While Ellis was appreciative of Tull's dedication to the source material, he saw potential in America's backstory.
"We think of America as a young country," Ellis says. "America's history doesn't go back hundreds of thousands of years, but America does have that buried map inside it too. That the was the thought of Gun Machine, the hidden maps of America, and particularly New York." The factually-driven thriller paved the way for Ellis' to deviate from the typical detective archetypes. A man of the law who chooses brains over brawns. "I didn't want to do any kind of cliche cop. Given the space to investigate in a novel, I kind of wanted to say how introverted and in his own head a cop could be and yet still prove to be an active force."
Unlike many of Ellis' comic creations, Tallow isn't a superhero. In Gun Machine , the thrills come from Tallow losing himself to the job. "I wanted to see how far into his own head I could put a guy and still have it work on the page, still have him operate as a cop. Without being a genius, without being Sherlock Holmes, [he] could still think they're way out of a situation like that."
Gun Machine arrives in a heated moment in American politics. Following a string of violent outbursts, all eyes are on the U.S.' stance on gun ownership and rights. As the debate turns to the world of entertainment — movies, TV, video games, and comics depiction of violence continuously cited as a an inciting cause of real tragedy — Ellis stands firm. "My obligations as a creator are to the story first, everything else second," he says. "While there is still violence in the world, it's a thing that needs to be talked about in stories. I'm not helping myself, the story, or anyone else, by shying away from it because I personally find it uncomfortable. The fact is, there are things I find uncomfortable that I should be writing about in order to find out what I think about them and to find out why they make me uncomfortable."
This isn't the first time Ellis has seen his work impacted by the world around him. In 1999, Ellis penned an issue of John Constantine: Hellblazer entitled "Shoot," which dealt heavily with school shootings. "Columbine happened about 10 days before it was due to go to print. It was done — colored and off to the printers." The comic was eventually released — in 2010.
"Gun Machine doesn't speak to Aurora or Newtown in a way that that particular Hellblazer issue spoke after the fact to Columbine," Ellis says. "I have no concerns on that score and Gun Machine is certainly not a book that glorifies guns. It is a book that points out how stupidly easy it is to get a gun." The author believes that in order to tackle U.S. history, Gun Machine had to focus on firearms. "I've been writing about America for 20 years now," Ellis says. "And if you're gonna write fiction in America, you have to know about guns. So in one way, Gun Machine is the culmination of 20 years or reading about guns."
Ellis is, for lack of a better phrasing, a man who sticks to his guns. He's a writer who strives for truth over pandering to the current climate — when asked if there's room in today's world for a a automatic-weapon-toting hero like The Punisher, he jokes that any alteration would come off as a "very special episode of Blossom" that comic readers would write off. In Gun Machine, he's entranced by his emotionally complex characters and the gritty underbelly they're forced to traverse. It's not a pretty world, but it's his story to tell.
Gun Machine is currently being developed as a TV series by Trauma creator Dario Scardapane, with a pilot script having been handed in weeks ago. Ellis stays out of that world too. It's not his story to tell. Same with movie adaptations — Red 2 is currently in the works and Ellis is looking forward to attending the premiere with his daughter. That's it. The writer commits himself to his writing, his projects, and his life, regardless of any political discussion that might try to hook him in.
The only thing you might convince him to do is throw away his old VHS tapes. Maybe.
Gun Machine is available now in hardcover and e-book.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Mulholland Books; Vertigo]
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I attended a screening of Relativity Media and Bandito Brothers action adventure Act of Valor a couple weeks ago in the movie theater on the Intrepid aircraft carrier in the harbour in Manhattan thanks to a invite from one of the executive producers. Obviously this was the perfect venue to see a film that stars real active duty Navy SEALs. Act of Valor is a powerful and uniquely authentic action film -- real Navy Seals play most of the key parts using real ammo (first time this has been done in the last 100 years in Hollywood) with real military weaponry and equipment. Even the aviators who were involved in the film as well as the personnel in submarines are all real military members and you literally feel the realism.
No need for special effects in Act of Valor when the reality is much better; the action sequences will have you pushing back in your seat like being in the front row of a awesome roller coaster ride. The best scene in the film - when the Seals ascend onto a moving ocean-going yacht and interrogate a drug dealer-terrorist makes you feel like you’re in the scene watching from two feet away -- amazing filmmaking with great intensity enhanced by the fact that the interrogator is an actual SEALs operative.
If you like action films you’ll love Act of Valor because it breaks new ground in filmmaking by virtue of its use of non-actors in key roles. Some critics may say the dramatic scenes lack emotion because more professional actors were not used but this is just not the case. This is the real deal and as such adds an emotional depth and intensity that is impossible to fake on the big screen.
Just ask anyone who attended the special screening on the Intrepid. At the conclusion of the film there was a long standing ovation and then the audience heard from many of the SEALs in person explaining why they participated and acted in the film. These guys are true American heroes and you’ll love watching them in action in Act of Valor a valiant story of mission commitment combat weaponry and most importantly valor and brotherhood. While most movies star actors who merely portray heroes on screen Act of Valor stars actual heroes showing how they lay it on the line for the freedoms that we as civilians enjoy every day. You’re going to enjoy the ride.

This is a huge week for fans of young adult fantasy series. One of the most ambitious film franchises of all time is coming to a close. And while we’re sad to soon be entering a world where there isn’t a new Harry Potter film on the horizon (though just yesterday I argued the entire series needs to be remade), there’s still plenty of YA stories out there that will help fill that gaping hole you now find growing in your chest. Some are already heading to the big screen and some aren’t even out yet, but if you’ve got a YA itch that you’ve just got to scratch, at least one of these is bound to be your fix.
"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Alright, let’s just get the big one out of the way first. You’ve probably grown tired of hearing about The Hunger Games at this point purely because Lionsgate dropped more casting bombs over the last few months than the Luftwaffe dropped on London during the Blitz. For many it’s already worn out its PR welcome, and if that’s the case, you’re probably still wondering what exactly is the big deal about YA’s current biggest craze.
Here’s the skinny: The Hunger Games is not a fantasy series. It’s a vaguely sci-fi story set in a post-apocalyptic future where a newly reformed nation is forced to participate in an annual, televised competition to the death. Basically, it’s Battle Royale meets The Long Walk. Conceptually, it’s unoriginal, but it’s not exactly bad. Collins’ writing is of the standard, breezy variety most will have come to expect from novels written for teenagers, but the material does show promise for the big screen. The first book in the trilogy isn’t good enough to recommend outright, but it won’t make you want to throw the book on a smoldering pire.
Chance it Will Scratch Your Potter Itch: Low, but it may (very) temporarily distract you from it.Who Owns the Film Rights: Lionsgate.
"Incarceron" by Catherine Fisher
I haven’t read Incarceron, but back when Potter mania was proving fantasy novels can be big, big box office business, every studio could be found trying to find the next big thing. One of those properties snapped up quickly was Incarceron, which sounds like a truly unique blend of science fiction and fantasy that has more originality on a single page than something derivative like The Hunger Games has in its entire series.
The story is about a society that exists inside a virtual prison controlled by an AI named Incarceron. One day two characters, each coming from two very different backgrounds, find a key that they believe will allow them to escape this realm, which has been designed to mirror the 18th century, though it’s overseen by robots and Incarceron’s omnipresent eye. The trouble is they have to find what door the key actually unlocks.
Chance it Will Scratch Your Potter Itch: Pretty decent. Its world isn’t quite as accessible the wizarding world, but it indulges in its own fully realized and bizarre world with similar devotion.Who Owns the Film Rights: 20th Century Fox.
"Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld
If you’re a fan of alternate history settings and steampunk stylings, Leviathan was created just for you. It takes place in a bizzaro reality where World War I is being fought between the Clankers, the tech-based faction who fight with mechanized war machines, and the Darwinists, allies that do battle with highly specialized animals that have been bred and evolved for war. Sounds pretty damned rad, no?
Westerfeld’s writing is probably a bit more youth-oriented than most adults will want from that premise, but that doesn’t stop him from delivering a complex, wildly imaginative narrative full of high concepts with a vague relationship to our own World War I. Adults will enjoy it, but if you happen to have a kid between 9 and 13, please give them a copy of this instead of The Hunger Games.
Chance it Will Scratch Your Potter Itch: Mild. It’s got nothing to do with magic, but, as with Incarceron, it’s absolutely a unique setting and story.Who Owns the Film Rights: No one as far as I can tell, which is stupid. Leviathan would make for a helluva animated film. Just check out the book’s trailer to get a taste of what you’re missing out on:
"The Spook’s Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney
Note: This series has a silly amount of titles. The series itself is called The Wardstone Chronicles, in America its first entry in it is called The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch, and the movie is actually called The Seventh Son (a change that was no doubt made to distance any assumed association with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which floundered at the box office).
As with Incarceron, I haven’t actually read any of The Wardstone Chronicles, but it’s now at the top of my always growing "To Read" pile. It’s about a young teenage boy in the 1700s who, because he is the seventh son of a seventh son, is able to see all manner of otherwise ethereal beasties like ghosts and boggarts. He then takes an apprenticeship under the local spook and learns how to kill all the supernatural baddies that threaten his town and are under the control of an evil queen.
A film adaptation is currently in the casting stages, with Jeff Bridges set to play The Spook, while Ben Barnes is locked down as his apprentice (I guess they’re aging the character quite a bit). Julianne Moore is attached to play the queen. And if that cast isn’t enticing enough on its own, the film is being produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, the Thomas Tull-led team that has given the world Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
Chance it Will Scratch Your Potter Itch: High. The series, which currently has 8 books under its belt, has both a critical and fan following thanks to Delaney’s dark(er) fantasy sensiblities.Who Owns the Film Rights: Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures.

When crafting a follow-up to the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time it’s understandable that one might be reticent to mess with a winning formula. But director Todd Phillips and writers Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong seem to have confused revisiting with recycling: The Hangover Part II so closely mirrors its blockbuster predecessor in every vital aspect that it can scarcely claim the right to call itself a sequel.
The only significant new wrinkle introduced in Part II is its setting: Bangkok Thailand a location that at least theoretically augurs well for a second helping of inspired lunacy. The story structure of the first film has been copied wholesale a game of Mad Libs played with its script. The action is again set around a bachelor party this time in honor of buttoned-down dentist Stu (Ed Helms). Again the boys (Stu Bradley Cooper’s boorish frat boy Phil and Zach Galifianakis’ moronic man-child Alan) awaken the next day in a hideously debauched hotel room with little memory of the previous night’s revelry. And again there is a missing companion: Teddy (Mason Lee son of Ang) the brother-in-law to be. (Poor Justin Bartha is once again relegated to the sidelines popping up now and then to push the plot forward via cell phone.)
The amnesiac/investigative angle of the first Hangover made for a refreshing twist on the contemporary men-behaving-badly comedy. Repeated here its effect is arguably the opposite: Too often the action feels rote and formulaic. Gone is any hint of surprise an aspect so crucial to good comedy and a huge part of the first film’s appeal. Key comic set pieces – a tussle with monks at a Buddhist temple a visit to a transsexual brothel a car chase involving a drug-dealing monkey – reveal themselves to be merely variations of memorable bits from the first film.
Tonally Part II is darker cruder and a bit nastier than its predecessor. Female characters never a priority in the first film are further marginalized in the sequel. (The only woman with significant dialogue a Bangkok prostitute also happens to have a penis. I’ll let you ponder the implications of that one.) The three leads Helms Cooper and Galifianakis still work well together and despite the inferior material enough of their chemistry remains to make the proceedings bearable – and occasionally funny. But their characters feel somehow degraded reduced to coarse caricatures of their former selves. Speaking of caricature Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) the fey faux-gangsta villain of the first film returns in an expanded capacity in the sequel his garbled hip-hop slang more gratuitous – and more grating – than before.
I can’t help but wonder what might have been if a planned cameo by Mel Gibson playing a tattoo artist hadn’t been scrapped reportedly due to objections by Galifianakis. Liam Neeson Gibson’s replacement apparently proved ineffectual in his first go-round and when he wasn't available for re-shoots his scene was eventually shot with Nick Cassavetes in the role. In its existing incarnation the scene is purely functional a chunk of forgettable exposition. The presence of Gibson an actor of not inconsiderable comic talent would have at least added an air of unpredictability something the scene – and indeed the movie – sorely lacks.

There are few film projects out there as anticipated as The Dark Knight Rises. Not only is it the follow up to one of the biggest and best blockbusters of all time, but it's also the final chapter in director Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Bat-flicks. With a great cast that reunites Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman, but also features franchise newcomers Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway and many more.
Today, Warner Bros. Pictures release a press release stating that production had officially begun on the film, and we here at Hollywood.com couldn't be more excited. You can expect a ton of set photos and videos (both official and unofficial) to start pouring in now that cameras are rolling, and we'll make sure to show you everything we can, but for now feast on the release, which you can read below.
BURBANK, CA, May 19, 2011 – Principal photography has begun on Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises,” the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman.
The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.
Returning to the main cast, Oscar® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) reprises the role of Lucius Fox.
In helming “The Dark Knight Rises,” Christopher Nolan is utilizing IMAX® cameras even more extensively than he did on “The Dark Knight,” which had marked the first time ever that a major feature film was partially shot with IMAX® cameras. The results were so spectacular that the director wanted to expand the use of the large-format cameras for this film.
The screenplay for “The Dark Knight Rises” is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan &amp; David S. Goyer. The film is being produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. “The Dark Knight” is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.
Behind the scenes, “The Dark Knight Rises” reunites the director with several of his longtime collaborators, all of whom worked together on the “The Dark Knight.” The creative team includes director of photography Wally Pfister, who recently won an Oscar® for his work on Nolan’s “Inception”; production designer Nathan Crowley; editor Lee Smith; and Oscar®-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming (“Topsy-Turvy”). In addition, Paul Franklin and Chris Corbould, who both won Oscars® for the effects in “Inception,” will supervise the visual and special effects, respectively. The music will be composed by Oscar® winner Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King”).
The locations for “The Dark Knight Rises” span three continents and include the American cities of Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles, as well as sites in India, England and Scotland.
“The Dark Knight Rises” is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures. Slated for release on July 20, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

This week, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, releases one of his most ambitious projects yet, a film that exposes the advertising world while using advertising to fund the film itself. It's a pretty circular experience but he manages to pull it off. And by reading this interview or watching the movie or really paying any attention at all, you're part of the process. Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is probably the only movie ever released that is in the black before it's even released. It opened to great reviews at Sundance, and it seems to be rolling along nicely towards its theatrical release this Friday.
Just in time, we sat down with Spurlock to pick his brain about his new project and he had quite a bit to say on the matter.
In this film, we’re just watching the whole process as it unfolds, but my first question when I sat down was did you have some sort of planning process that came before or did you just have an idea and call some people up and take cameras?
Pretty much. Well, it started off, we got the idea after watching an episode of Heroes and there was this blatant product placement of a car where the cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere, her father gives her a car and she’s like “The Rogue, the Nissan Rogue, I can’t believe it’s the Rogue!” And we were so dumbfounded that we felt like we just watched a commercial in the middle of this show that I love so much. And so my producing partner, Jeremy [Chilnick], and myself just started the next day talking about that episode, talking about product placement in movies and over the course of just talking about this show, came up with the idea for the film. We said, what if we made a film that pulls back the curtain on product placement, marketing, and advertising that’s paid for by companies, people that are actually paying to put their products in the film? And then from there we started brainstorming, talking about ideas and then yeah, the next thing you know we were just like chasing companies.
I was thinking about people who are brand loyalists, especially Apple folks who just tend to love Apple intensely, and you sort of had this experience with these brands, talking to people who started the brand, talking to people who own the brand, and then eventually using all of those products, so were you kind of a victim of your own ideas? (Morgan points to suit.) You’re wearing the suit!
Am I a victim of my own idea? This (points to the suit) was my idea. This whole thing was my bright idea, yeah. So little did I know as I was pitching this and here was the suit that I would actually have to have the suit and I would be wearing it as I go out to promote the movie. So, yeah. I’m very much a victim of it.
And you’re addicted to Pom now.
I have Pom every day now. It’s true.
Can’t live without it?
Nope. Can’t live without it.
On the flip side of that, I was watching the full Jimmy Kimmel interview from the movie, because it aired last night, and you said that someone from Ben Sherman said they would rather kill themselves.
I’d rather kill myself, yeah.
Did you have any brands that you were a huge fan of that disappointed you?
Well, most brands disappointed me. We called 600 companies to be in this film, of which 580 said no. And I’m like, I use an Apple computer why wouldn’t you want to be a sponsor of this film? No. You know? I wear Fluevogs, why wouldn’t Fluevogs want to be a sponsor of this film? No. I drink Guinness, I love Guinness. No. You know, it’s like we wanted to get a fast food partner, so I thought In and Out Burger, I love In and Out Burger. You don’t know how great you are. I said, how cool would it be that we had like an unhappy meal or a displeased meal at In and Out to tie in for the movie? It’s a great statement. No. It’s like we had so many great ideas for certain people and it’s like you’re crushed when they didn’t happen. But for everyone that didn’t, like the fact that we were able to get a Sheetz on board to do collector cups going into this into all 400 outlets. We have a documentary with collector cups.
Yeah, that’s a first, for sure. Going along with that, you have the bit too about Quentin Tarantino and him wanting to use Dennys in his movies, so it’s definitely an issue. Was that something that you were seeking to highlight or did you just happen upon that common problem with him?
No, I think we just sort of had that common problem. We were looking for folks who were sort of A-list directors with good stories to tell and I spoke to Quentin on the phone first and we started talking about product placement and he told some of his related some of his experiences and I was like this is great, I’d love to come talk to you. Because the thing that he ended up doing is that when none of these companies would sponsor his films, is he started creating these companies, you know as a necessity to his projects. So you know from the cigarette companies, where there’s like Apple Brand cigarettes to Big Kahuna where they have the Big Kahuna Burger, like you hear these brands in these places that he creates around his characters which is crazy because he does create this whole alternate universe. Which is cool. Kevin Smith does that too.
And Pixar does that a little bit as well.
(Laughs) But only Pixar can market the shit out of it. Only Pixar can put it on lunchboxes, tshirts, toys, hats, sneakers.
They are the kings of that for sure. And sort of the reverse of you becoming a brand evangelist by the end of it, you say at the end of the film that they were no prescreenings like many of your contracts required.
Not one. Well, the prescreening we agreed to was that all of them would get to see the film before its theatrical release. So that was the deal with all the sponsors. We didn’t watch it in conference rooms like this, where we’re staring at a TV with their lawyers, just dissecting the film. So what we said was, just come to Sundance. And they’re like we need to see it before then. And I said, just come see it there. It’s not the theatrical release, you know, it’s a festival audience. It will be the best place to see this film. So 11 of our fifteen brand partners at the time – we now have 22 brand partners in the movie – but 11 of 15 we had at Sundance came, they saw the film and loved it. And it’s not, you know, they saw it with an audience. They didn’t see it with tunnel vision and blinders on or just like Holy Shit look how terrible we look. You know it was very much they got to see it, one, with all of the other people who helped make the film happen which I think is a good thing. And they got to see it with other audience members who were reacting to the movie as a whole and not to just Pom or Ban or Hyatt.
So you didn’t get any frantic phone calls.
No, not a one.
That’s great. And in that vein, you had these actual commercials throughout the film, but they were actually entertaining, we were almost waiting for them. They were these fun little moments, so you were kind of really altering the idea of product placement. Do you think when people see the film, it might actually alter the way companies in general do their future business?
Yeah, well it would be great if advertising agencies and brands were willing to take a little more risk, were willing to take chances and roll the dice with creative people. And ultimately it would be great if brands worked directly with creative people because what I think the film shows is that ultimately you don’t really need the agency in the middle. You know, like we accomplished all of this, you know once Ban was on board, which we did get through an agency, all the other brands we got were through us calling them and chasing them. But the first brand, the very first brand we got we did get through Richard Kirshenbaum my old friend at KBR. But all the creative was created by us, all the film was created by us, the integration of them into the movie was done by us so, I think the more brands will work with creative people, the more exciting it would be. Both for them and for the artists they’re working with and the more fulfilling it could potentially be.
Are you worried at all that in showing the backend, I don’t want to say bullying, but maybe mild bullying that goes on behind the scenes, for those of us who were already noticing that Iron Man was eating Burger King cheeseburgers, are you worried that it’s going to become even more negative now that we know what went on on the manipulative backend?
I think it will change the way you look at film and television. Like I don’t think you’ll ever look at a Hollywood movie the same way ever again after watching Greatest Movie. It will become so transparent to you and you will question everything that went on to get something in that shot. You know that got something into the background that became part of a conversation as they were talking about a watch or a drink or a shoe and you’re like what? Did somebody actually pay for that? And I think to literally start to question the reality of those and how they came to be is a good thing. And to come in with a sense of skepticism is a good thing. A little skepticism is always a good thing.
So you don’t think we need the arrows pointing out when something’s an ad, like one person suggested in the film?
(Laughs) Absolutely not. I love – Robert Weizman is fantastic and his organization is great, but the last thing I want is in the middle of one of my movies, somebody going (points) “doink, doink, doink” yeah or a in TV show or anything.
Yeah, it’s like you know that’s a Subway ad, I got it, I’m dealing with it.
Yeah, I feel like, what they’ve done in the UK now is – because they just started allowing product placement in the UK, it just happened, literally within the last week – and when a movie or a TV show has product placement in it, at the beginning, you know how we have like TV MA? Like the ratings things that come up in the beginning or like at the upper righthand corners? Like next to that is a P, for product placement so that you know here’s what the show’s rated and, by the way, there’s product placement you have to watch. Now you don’t know what it is, but you know it’s in there, so I have a feeling that something like that could happen could happen in America, but I don’t think this (pointing gesture) will happen.
So would you call the film a solution? Or would you call it more of the beginning of something?
I think the film does a great job of really creating a conversation and generating a dialog about what’s happening. And now we have to start to ask ourselves about where do we draw the line? How much is too much? Where is it? What do we do? Do we stop all the advertising and marketing from coming into schools? Do we figure out a way to make that not happen so that the schools can have the money they need? You know, how do we change it in Hollywood? Do we kick the brands out of the writers’ room so that we let creative people do their job, rather than writing into dialogue as the guy pulls into the driveway, “Whoa we got here so fast and man that Mustang handles like a dream”? You know so you don’t have you know, terrible dialogue like that. Ultimately I agree, I think let the creative people do their jobs. And then you know, I think there’s a bigger question that we have to ask ourselves which is just, do we want to live in a world where everything is going to be brought to us by some sponsor? Because that’s literally where we’re headed. I went to see the Virgin Mobile Lady Gaga concert and you go see the Mets at CitiField and you catch the N or R train at Barclay’s Center Station which used to be Atlantic Pacific in Brooklyn. That’s literally where it’s going – like New York City Council was floating a piece of legislation that would essentially enable them to sell off the naming rights of parks and playgrounds.
So that’s the question. Is that the city I want to live in? Do I want to take my kid to Bank of America Prospect Park to the Pepsi playground where he can go down the Cheeto slide? I personally don’t really want to. That’s a little much. The more we start going, ultimately like the girl says in the film, when my kid is 15, 16, I’ll be dropping him off at Red Bull High. That’s where we’ll go.
So since I only get one more question, I want to sneak this last one in. After seeing this film, I was wondering where could you go next after a project like this, it’s such an undertaking, and of course you’re undertaking Comic-Con next and I laughed when I saw it because it’s like, well that would be the logical next step.
Yeah, it’s great. It’s such an epic place, I am such a geek. It’s everything I love. I love toys, I love genre movies, I love comic books, I love video games. It so speaks to everything that is my childhood, and my adulthood, so when we got the idea to make that film and we shot it last summer it was one of those things it’s like a dream come true to get to do it. And we’re working with Stan Lee and Joss Whedon, Thomas Tull from Legendary Pictures, Harry Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News, I mean it’s pretty awesome.
You know, there’s a lot of advertising at Comic-Con though…
A lotta advertising. (Laughs) A lot.

Even though recent reports stated that Metallo and Lois Lane's militant father would be the villains in Warner Bros. anticipated Superman reboot, it's now official: General Zod will make his triumphant return to theaters in December 2012 as Michael Shannon has been cast as the fan favorite character today. He takes over the role from Terence Stamp, who played the Kryptonian baddie in the 1978 original and its 1981 sequel, and joins Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane in the new production, which is set to begin this summer.
Zack Snyder is directing Superman: The Man of Steel for the studio while Christopher Nolan acts as producer/creative godfather to the new franchise, joined by his partner/wife Emma Thomas, Charles Roven (who worked with Nolan on his billion dollar Batman franchise) and Snyder's wife/partner Deborah. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips of Legendary Pictures will executive produce. David S. Goyer wrote the screenplay based on his and Nolan's story.
The plan is to shoot this summer, though there's still more casting to get done. We need to know who will play second-tier characters like Jimmy Olsen and Perry White from The Daily Planet as well as who will appear as Ursa and Non, Zod's right-hand man and left-hand woman (both gave the Last Son of Krypton one hell of a battle in Superman II). While those characters may or may not be in the script, one thing is for sure: Snyder and co. have hired perhaps the perfect actor to play Zod. Shannon has a tremendous presence on screen, as anyone who's seen his work in Revolutionary Road, Boardwalk Empire or Take Shelter (his most recent film credit which Sony Pictures Classics will release sometime this year) can attest to. He should prove to be a formidable foe for The Man of Steel as well as a great on-set collaborator for Cavill.
Source: Variety